How Many Films Have Been Made About William Shakespeare's Works?

2 Answers

According to the Guinness Book of World Records around 420 films of feature length have been made that are based on William Shakespeare's writing. His plays starting to appear on television ever since the silent movie era and continue to made today and will be for generations to come.

Some of the more modern works are adaptations where an older story or theme is adapted to either a futuristic or contemporary setting. Even in most of the adaptations the dialogues are more or less kept intact so as not to lose Shakespeare's touch. A single play has been made and adapted several times over the years. Take, for instance, the play "As You Like It"; this has been made into a film in 1936 in the United States, on BBC in 1979, Canada in 1983, UK in 1992, Russia in 1994, and most recently in the UK in 2006.

Innumerable films adaptions have been made from Shakespeare's plays, starting in 1920s Hollywood.

When I was an English lit major at Berkeley in the 1970s, in addition to the required Shakespeare overview class, I took one specifically of his film adaptations. God knows how many have been made since then!

In addition to classic English adaptations (most notably those by Sir Laurence Olivier and the Royal Shakespeare Company), other nations have depicted The Bard's works onscreen.

Of note is Akira Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood" ("Macbeth") and "Ran" (King Lear"). There are also several good Russian and French versions of his plays.

As for the current crop of British and American films starring flash-in-the-pan starlets (of both sexes) in contemporary or futuristic dress, give me Sir Larry any day!